4mostClassifieds - User Survey

Over recent weeks we have run a user survey on our free classified adsite 4mostClassifieds.com

There was no inducement to complete the survey other than anonymity and our assurance that the info was destined solely to improve service.

Below we summarize some key findings and the conclusions drawn - and some action steps we propose to fulfil our promise of service improvement.

1 GEOGRAPHY

70% of respondents are from USA/Canada with UK and India contributing most of the balance in equal shares. Indonesia was the other Asian contribution of note. Notably, there were no respondents from the rest of the English speaking world. 91% of respondents speak English as their first language, the balance being from the Indian subcontinent with English as their second language.

Lessons drawn -
a) Our own marketing has gaping holes in its appeal to the Commonwealth and other other English speaking communitites.

b) Although USA/Canada may still lead the world in internet adoption, this is rapidly changing as the massive Anglophone populations in Asia come online. India leads the way but China and Indonesia are also major new markets opening up. Significant differences of approach may be required to cater for differences in - culture, banking and disposable income, but there are major opportunities to be found in the massive emerging internet populations of Asia.

c) However, foreign markets are best left to experienced marketers, as the differences are non-trivial - cultural, legal, banking, timezone, communications etc etc. Concentrate on local markets for starters while you build expertise.

2 USER MARKETING FOCUS

We found a roughly equal spread between multi-level network marketing (MLM) and Affiliate marketing accounting for the great majority of our advertisers. There were also significant minorities of Resale Rights Info Product sales; and for Services to Marketers. There were also a couple of Made for Adsense Niche Content Sites.

The strong representation of MLM was a surprise to us and is not well served by publicly available generic training and advice. Unfortunately, the training provided by many of the product promotion outfits is rubbish to non-existent, which explains in part the massive drop out rate in the industry. Accordingly, we will introduce training and advice contributions and recommendations as possible.

For a start most MLM representatives could profit from the following free mini-course which I recommend strongly MagneticSponsoring

It may not surprise you to learn that the mini-course is a "come-on" to sell a (very good) book of the same name, but the free mini-lessons are of very high quality and usefulness and are well worth study in their own right if you cannot afford the book.

3 USER EXPERIENCE

A great surprise was to discover that 65% of all users had 3 months or less experience in online marketing. A total of 80% had up to 12 months only. This is a major finding which indicates a significant requirement for introductory marketing training and advice of which we were previously unaware.

To address this need I have created a blog Success with Classifieds to which we will contribute advice and tips on classified advertising. You are encouraged to visit the blog and leave your comments and any suggestions or requests for further articles and resource information.

We will also create an article directory at 4mostClassifieds.com where you can search and refer to relevant third party resources.

Unfortunately, the market for "How To" educational products for inexperienced Affiliate and MLM marketers is hugely exploitative and unreliable.
Hype is the order of the day and there is a serious problem of unrealistic expectations and outdated information. The internet is a fast evolving environment - older products often contain advice and information that was once valid but no longer works well or at all.

Obviously, there is little we can do unaided to put the world to rights on such a major issue, except to warn you about it and to provide a review and recommendation service for the various training and information resources we have knowledge of.

Your queries are invited for our comments on products you are considering or may have already purchased.

4 CUSTOMER VALUE

Our final finding was negative but important nevertheless.

Only 25% of respondents answered the nutty question "What is a new customer worth to your business?"

Of those responding, most offered confused answers demonstrating imperfect understanding of the question.

This was disappointing because "Customer Value" is a statistic constantly in the mind of every successful marketer. It affects virtually every strategic and tactical decision we make concerning advertising and promotion.

Put it round the other way - you are unlikely to succeed until you understand the question and know the answer.

The topic is important enough to warrant a dedicated blog article.

Take care,

Steven Henderson
4mostClassifieds.com

Add to: del.icio.us | Digg